Social activist Ryuichi Sakamoto turns his attention towards the oceans this time, the Japanese composer seems to have now dedicated his entire career to environmental projects. On this occasion, Sakamoto has teamed up with multimedia artist and musician Christopher Willits - with Willits providing guitar lines and harmonies amidst Sakamoto‘s tonal electronics and atmospheres.

Ocean Fire consists of seven tracks of swelling ambient instrumentals. Wandering tones cluster together washing back and forth in unison like mindless ocean waves do - the pieces have no edge, no boundary, but float fluently with a sense of constant motion.

The effect is impressively constructed, however, the ambience is not euphoric or melodic sounding, it’s deliberately imperfect – dark, with the sounds thickly condensed, frazzled by the brittle, sometimes harsh, clicks and crackles of Willits’ computer-processed guitar. Sakamoto’s usually transfixing piano lines are so fluid they’re virtually inaudible.

I must confess that Ocean Fire left me feeling a little detached, its air tight production is so compressed that it’s almost as if I’m being forcibly depth-plunged towards the bottom of the ocean, where nothing lives or breathes.

From a socio-political perspective, I'm unsure of exactly how or what the duo are trying to communicate through this release, all I do know is that Ocean’s Fire’s impressionistic void is skilfully interpreted but difficult to assimilate in terms of giving the listener a pleasurable experience. Not Sakamoto at his best by a long chalk.